GeoCapabilities and curriculum leadership: Balancing the priorities of aims-based and knowledge-led curriculum thinking in schools

The small-scale research presented in this paper was conducted as
part of the GeoCapabilities project. Though originating in the
Anglophone world, the project attempts to address the purposes and
values of geography education internationally. Using the idea of
“powerful disciplinary knowledge” the project asks what geography
has to offer that helps young people develop the human capabilities
they need in order to live a life that they consider valuable. In this
paper, we explore the challenges and opportunities presented by
GeoCapabilities in several European national contexts. We asked
selected teachers and teacher educators in four different countries
(Finland, Germany, The Netherlands and Sweden) what role they
thought geography plays in enhancing students’ “human potential.”
Despite marked differences relating to the legal and structural
background in each country we found major similarities in teachers’
and teacher educators’ curriculum thinking in relation to geography’s
contribution to the future well-being of their students